Electronic mail has long been used to distribute information to individuals at different geographic locations. Traditionally, electronic mail has been provided over a public network, e.g., the Internet, via an email service provider, such as gmail or Yahoo.
More recently, virtual private networks (VPNs) have allowed a private network to be extended across a public network. A VPN enables a computer to send and receive data across shared or public networks as if the computer were directly connected to the private network, while benefitting from the functionality, security and management policies of the private network. This is done by establishing a virtual point-to-point connection through the use of dedicated connections, encryption, or a combination of the two.
VPNs allow employees to securely access their company's intranet while traveling outside the office. Similarly, VPNs securely and cost effectively connect geographically disparate offices of an organization, creating one cohesive virtual network.
While VPNs are useful, they require a log-in. Also, VPNs suffer the same drawback as traditional email in that the email addresses of recipients have to be entered to send an email message. This may be a tedious process for an email sender if there are a large number of intended email recipients. This becomes even more of a problem if the email sender does not know the email addresses of the recipients or does not know exactly who should be a recipient.
Another problem with traditional email and VPNs is that a recipient may or may not be interested in the email. As the number of emails that recipients receive grows, an email that may actually be of interest to a recipient may be missed among a large number of received emails.
Internet forums offer an alternative to email for distributing information. Using forums, individuals do not have to be separately addressed. However, to obtain information, individuals must visit the Internet forum by logging in. This may present a problem if a sender of content wants to distribute information to a large number of recipients at a given time. Any intended recipient that is not engaged in the forum at the given time may miss important information.
Another problem with internet forums is that they are controlled by a central forum administrator that keeps track of individuals that are part of various forums. To become part of a forum, an individual must coordinate with the central forum administrator. This may slow down or inhibit the distribution of information, as individuals with an interest in the information may not be aware of or have a desire to engage in a forum for distribution of the information.
It is with respect to these and other considerations that the disclosure presented herein has been made.